Lay My Hat

Hi all,

Am getting lots of advice for heating! We have just bought a 3 storey house compromising of 6 (large-ish) bedrooms. I was told electric radiators are the way to go if you don't have central heating...then I was told oil filled ones were better. Also how many would I need for a large bedroom?

Would appreciate some other opinions please!

Thanks!

http://www.discoverthepyrenees.com

Gemma wrote:Am getting lots of advice for heating! We have just bought a 3 storey house compromising of 6 (large-ish) bedrooms. I was told electric radiators are the way to go if you don't have central heating...then I was told oil filled ones were better. Also how many would I need for a large bedroom?

Oil filled radiators are electric radiators. They are just more sophisticated, more controllable and expensive versions. The original power supply still comes from electricity.

Oil or gas powered central heating systems are intrinsically superior but in many situations they are simply too difficult of too expensive to install.

If you can’t afford or can’t install full central heating I would suggest the French equivalent of night storage heaters whether oil or brick filled. They are both driven by electricity. The brick filled should timed to charge only during your low tariff period only but give off heat all the time. The time cycle for oil filled is much shorter.

As with all forms of heating, the cubic capacity of the room, allied with insulation and draft proofing, is the deciding factor on what is necessary.

Alan

We have the option of putting in central heat (Propane gas tank and one radiator per room)in the tiny home we are buying in Italy - it will cost us about 3-4k USD and we are deciding if it is worth the extra expense - we would probably not be renting it out much during the winter...but that is when WE will most likely be there and I hate being cold

Are these portable-type heaters an option? (I use an electric one with a fan in my home in the US sometimes as my kitchen gets colder than the rest of my house!) I didn't know what types are available in Europe, and also if they would be safe to let guests use - could I trust people to turn them off when they are not home? I would hate for a heater to start a fire!

Thank you for the advice!

Hi

The French Finance Ministry has put together a database of fuel prices for both petrol and domestic heating that you can check by date.

For example, taking a look at the cost of fuel for the home shows that the average price in April 2005 for 100 litres was €40.85.

However, shoot forward a few months to September and the price had gone up to €51.58.

Site: http://www.industrie.gouv.fr/energie/pe ... ons_fr.htm

Hope this helps.

Craig

We have a house in spain which is designed for hot summers, not cold winter evenings (lots of tiling....) We don't have any fireplaces and did get a few oil filled radiators but they are expensive to run and not all that effective. But our managing agent told us about low energy panels that are available in spain (and they are also available elsewhere - see the website).

We have one in every room of our house and they are brilliant! Really unobtrusive and they can be left on safely and are easy to install; you can also paint them to match your decor. We leave them on when it's cold, and if necessary, we use the oil filled radiators in addition for an hour or so and we have found that once the place is warm you can turn off the oil filled ones and just leave the panels on to keep it at a decent temperature. They are much cheaper to run than oil filled rads.

http://www.econo-heat.com/topten.html

They seem to have agents in various countries, including the UK.


Hope this helps.